Palacios had enough talent and objectivity to appreciate Fernando’s intellectual capacities, and he was satisfied with the way the engineer played his role as a spur to puncture the other teachers’ laziness. He would have wanted to lead an entire faculty made up of people as fit for their tasks as Ulloa was, since the Institute’s prestige would then grow and its director would be viewed in a positive light by the government inspectors. But now, through an unforeseeable combination of circumstances, far from having his desire fulfilled, Palacios was being pressured to get rid of Fernando Ulloa. For his attempts to mollify Padre Balcázar were in vain; even more, his promise to call the matter to the engineer’s attention and warn him to abstain from troubling his students with subversive exhortations was heard with considerable skepticism. No, the priest wanted Fernando Ulloa to be taught a lesson and would accept nothing less. As Dr. Palacios invoked the higher interests that he, too, had to take into consideration, Padre Balcázar withdrew from the office muttering anathemas against the cowardliness of worldly men and citing the passage of the Gospel which advises that a millstone be hung around the neck of whosoever shall offend the little ones.

From that moment on, Dr. Palacios knew Fernando Ulloa was a lost cause. His apprehensions were confirmed as the incidents multiplied. Several students stopped attending the Institute in order to keep from contaminating the purity of their Catholicism; anonymous letters rained from the sky, heaping up a most singular assortment of accusations against Ulloa; serious, discerning people affirmed that His Excellency was pondering the appropriateness of laying an interdiction against the establishment.

Dr. Palacios didn’t want this matter, which had already gone too far, to compromise his own position any further. He understood that he had to provide a public redress, so one morning when Fernando arrived to teach his class, the proctor refused to give him the key to the classroom because, “according to instructions from my superiors, you have been deemed unworthy to remain a member of the faculty.”

This news was communicated to Fernando in front of numerous witnesses and with the secret pleasure a servant takes in humiliating someone who, by virtue of his higher position, is always humiliating him.

To everyone’s disappointment, Ulloa was more surprised than angry. He wanted to find out who had given such a ridiculous order and badgered the proctor with questions. But the proctor shrugged insolently, refusing to give any explanation. For their part, the witnesses showed the circumspect faces of those who are fully informed but prefer not to get mixed up in the matter.

Fernando tried to meet with Dr. Palacios but that was impossible because he “was out of town.” So he had to retreat back home, shaken by contradictory feelings.